Dr Arup Kumar Das was born in Nagpur, Mumbai in 1928. At the time of Partition in 1947, he was 19 years old and a first-year medical student in Dhaka Medical College. A year before Partition, Das observed people being brought into the medical centre, many with severe knife wounds as a result of communal violence in Dhaka, he says. He himself was fearful for his safety.
To get from his dormitory to the medical college, he began to dress a certain way to disguise himself. Soon, a bus was arranged by the medical college to transport students through areas of potential communal violence. Das described swift, stealthy murders by stabbing, frequent violence, and killings perpetrated sometimes for issues such as noisily marching during a festival. He had looked forward to Partition and was relieved when it occurred as he thought it would bring an end to the violence. He recalls that in Dhaka, killings had been taking place for over a decade prior to Partition and no change in violent episodes following partition.
Just before Partition, he and 50 other medical students were told that they would have no choice but to leave. In exchange, 50 students in Kolkata chose to move to Dhaka to study medicine. A fellow student in Dhaka had made a scouting trip to Kolkata to find medical schools and housing options for all the students. Soon after his return to Dhaka, all the students left for Kolkata separately.
Das packed one suitcase, bought a ticket for a Dhaka mail train to Kolkata, and boarded the crowded coach alone. The mail train was faster and safer than the regular passenger train because it made fewer stops. He got in and out of the train through the window because the doors were too crowded. He remembers passengers helped each other. Although police occasionally boarded the train to make checks, they never made it past the door because of the crowds. Das recalls no violence along the way. The train journey to Kolkata involved three steps – about a six hour train ride from Dhaka to the Meghna river, a one hour ferry ride, a second three-hour train ride, crossing the border at Malda, then on to Sealdah station in Kolkata. He was relieved when the journey was over and he had reached Kolkata. At Calcutta Medical College, he stayed at a group house that later became a small dorm for 15 medical students.
He had arrived in Kolkata shortly after riots had taken place that left many dead on the streets. It took more than a month to completely remove the bodies. The medical students supported each other through these trying times, he recalls. Das thought that his immediate family was most likely in Dibrugarh, Assam, where his father had travelled for work. He wrote to his family regarding his situation.
Most of his relatives who lived in Chittagong district over time moved to India, though some tried to stay and hold on to their land for some time. The family who migrated settled in scattered locations and have not reunited. Distant family members may remain in Bangladesh on a small amount of the original property, he expects.
He feels the most important event of his life following Partition was his marriage. He says that it compelled him to be responsible in order to provide for his family and it affected his decisions for the rest of his life. He currently lives in Illinois, US with his wife. They have four grandchildren.
Das recalls with great fondness his grandparents’ home in Patiya district. He misses the land and property his family lost as a result of Partition but the times spent there as a young child with his extended family are among his most treasured memories.
Although he had looked forward to Partition, as he thought it would bring an end to the violence, he feels it did not accomplish this. He says that his experience helped him adjust to unexpected situations that occurred subsequently in his life. His advice to young people is to be flexible, adjust to life’s unforeseeable events, and to learn from history so the same mistakes are not repeated in the future.
This interview was conducted by citizen historian Rupali Das.
(Stories preserved and archived by The 1947 Partition Archive)